All posts tagged ‘Marvel Comics’

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Legend of Oz: The Wicked West
This week, I picked up The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West (written by Tom Hutchison, art by Allison Borges and color by Kate Finnegan). It’s nothing like the comics I usually pick up, so I decided to keep an open mind and jump in. I’m glad I did because the story is pretty good.

Just as the title suggests, this version of The Wizard of Oz takes place in the wild west. Imagine if Dorothy was actually a cowgirl and Toto was her horse. Her barn dropped on the Wicked Witch of the West and not a house. After that, the only resemblance to the original story are the character names.

If you’ve read the original novel, you will recognize some of the characters you wouldn’t know otherwise. Those of you who have only seen the original movie, you will still enjoy the series, but you probably won’t know who some of the characters are (or you’ll think the writer made them up).

In this version of the story, the Emerald City is run by a woman by the name of General Jinjur. Not sure what her deal is, but she has an ax to grind. For the most part, the Emerald City appears to be run by the women. Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion are all in a prison in Emerald City, that is run by women. Again, I’m not sure what is going on here, so I’m hoping future issue will explain it all.

For the most of issue 1, we see the Tin Man (a real man, who appears to have great skills with an ax and super human strength), a lion (who so far seems to be just a lion) and the Scarecrow (who is actually a female character and looks to be of Indian origin).

I’m interested to see what happens and see how much (and how quickly) they explain the parts that confuse me.

I was given a copy of this title for this review. That in no way hindered by opinion. After all, I had to keep telling myself to keep an open mind through out the story. That should tell you something right?

The first thing we will cover is what exactly gender is. People often times think it is synonymous with sex or is feminism in disguise. This class is about men and women and how we can learn about gender through its social construction, as politics, as a diffuse concept, and as a lived experience. Constructions of gender vary from culture to culture and change throughout time. In the class we will look at how gender is constructed and how the stereotypes of certain gender traits are perpetrated by the producers of cultural material. Masculinity and femininity have traits associated with them that are not equal with a person’s sex.

If you’ve been waiting to see the course materials, all titles are on sale for a limited time on ComiXology – and even if you aren’t taking the course, it’s a great time to grab titles like the new Captain Marvel, Action Comics #1 (1938), and Superman: Birthright.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week, we look at DC Comics’ Batman and Robin #18 and Marvel’s All-New X-Men #8.

Kelly Knox – Batman and Robin #18 (DC Comics)
Thanks to the Marvel #1 promotion, I read a lot of comics last week. But of all those books, none stood out like the gut-wrenching Batman and Robin #18, which follows a silent Bruce Wayne in the aftermath of the events of Batman Incorporated #8.

Spoiler warning for Batman Incorporated #8.

Written by Peter Tomasi with art by Patrick Gleason, not one word of dialogue is spoken, but volumes of emotion pour off the pages as Bruce struggles with the death of Damian. As Bruce mourns his son, he takes to the streets of Gotham, stricken with grief and anger.

The issue brought tears to my eyes and showcases just how powerfully a comic book can tell a story. Batman and Robin #18 is destined to be a classic.

Dakster Sullivan — All-New X-Men #8
After two weeks of avoiding spoiler sites and Marvel’s news feed, I finally received my copy of the All-New X-Men #8 (written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by David Marquez ) from the Marvel Subscription service. This issue focused entirely on Angel. I know something bad happened to the character, but I have no clue what that is. That didn’t stop me from enjoying this issue, which is my favorite out of the series so far.

The two Angels run into each other in the sky and immediately, young Angel realizes that something isn’t quite right with his future self. After a battle against Hydra at the Avengers’ Mansion, Angel from the past is hurt and rightfully so, freaked out by his future self. I’m not sure what freaks him out more…interacting with his future self, or the fact that no one will talk about what happened to him. I know it’s freaking me out.

Captain America gets involved and the real humor of the issue kicks in.

All-New X-Men Issue 8, art by David Marquez \ Image: Marvel Comics

I’ve heard a rumor that eventually one of the original X-Men is going to join Cyclops’ team and after reading this issue, my best guess would be that member will be Angel.

In a small way, I can almost see Jean going rouge on the team. Her actions in this issue have me a little scared for her. Young Cyclops’s actions on the other hand have me wanting to throw him a parade.

A major plus of this issue is Kitty and Iceman lending some comic relief to what ends up being a very serious issue.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week we look at Batman: Li’l Gotham #7 and Star Wars #3.

Dakster Sullivan — Batman: Li’l Gotham #7Batman: Li’l Gotham #7 (written by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen; art by Dustin Nguyen) features a St. Patrick’s Day themed riddle. Someone is robbing banks in Gotham and blaming “innocent” villains for the crime. While the Bat family goes around Gotham picking up clues to who robbed each bank, the real villain is living it up in style at the expense of everyone else. Don’t worry…Batman gives the others a chance at getting him back for his games.

Oh and did you know that the Batmobile has a backseat and you can squeeze six villains into it?

The part I loved the most about this one, is how many characters they were able to squeeze in to this one issue. Just on the good guys’ side, I counted eight heroes (including Gordon and Bullock). The bad guys had about seven on their team, that is until they went after one of their own for framing them.

Just when I think I can’t like this series more, writer Brian Wood comes up with something else to make me grin with glee. Star Wars #3, with another striking cover by Alex Ross and art from Carlos D’Anda that pops off the page, immediately kicks off the action as Han Solo tries to get himself out of an ambush on Coruscant.

Brian Wood captures the defiant spirit of Han Solo perfectly in this issue. Han trusts his gut and yes, he does have a bad feeling about this.

Meanwhile, Princess Leia finds herself clashing with Luke Skywalker. It’s easy to forget that Luke is still young and fresh off the moisture farm after the end of A New Hope, and this issue shows a little bit of cockiness in the boy who destroyed a Death Star. It’s a side to Luke that I hadn’t considered before, and I continue to be impressed with the depth Brian Wood is already giving to characters who we all know and love.

Corrina–Batman and Robin #18 written by Pete Tomasi, art by Patrick Gleason and Mick Gray.

This week’s issue of the comic is a requiem for Robin, Damian Wayne, who died last week in Batman Incorporated. I’m not fond of the killing of kids in comics but I wanted to draw attention to this issue because it’s completely without words. It’s rare for a silent issue to be published, especially by Marvel or DC, and the preview linked above shows how the art alone can have emotional impact.

Someone hit the pause button on Marvel’s 700 free comics promotion…

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest SWSX news (or you’ve tried to get on ComiXology the past three days), you know that Marvel is giving away 700 free first issues. The fans response to promotion caused some serious traffic on ComiXology’s website and apps to the point that they have had to pause the promotion to allow regular traffic back on their site.

That doesn’t mean fans won’t get their comics though. According to ComiXology’s website, they are only pausing the promotion until their systems can catch up with the demand and traffic that the fans are bringing. To stay up to date on the promotion and when it will be available again, head over to ComiXology’s website and sign up for alerts.

Today at SXSW in Austin, TX, Marvel Comics announced a jaw-dropping promotion on the digital comic store. Over 700 free #1 issues of Marvel Comics from the past and present are now free to download through the end of Tuesday, March 12. Marvel is taking aim at attracting comic book readers both new and veteran with the initiative:

“At its core, Marvel #1 is all about bringing new readers into the fold,” explains Gabriel. “That doesn’t just mean fans who have never read a comic, but [also] longtime fans [who want] to jump into books they may have been waiting to try. With a plethora of great content and digital devices—be it tablets or smart phones—in more hands than ever, there is no better time to launch an initiative such as this.”

The Marvel and Comixology apps are understandably slammed at the moment as eager comic fans rush to get the free issues, but keep trying to get your old favorites and take a look at new titles, including the Marvel NOW! titles.

I recommend grabbing Hawkeye #1 or Captain Marvel #1 if you’re looking for a new comic to hook you back into the world of Marvel. I’m going to get my first look at the titles All-New X-Men and Young Avengers. What’s on your download list?

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week we look at Hawkeye #8 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Issue #.01 and a book that’s a celebration of comics.

Dakster Sullivan — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Issue #.01
I wanted to read Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Issue #.01, written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Steve McNiven, because quite frankly the cover intrigued me. The man in the background and the child holding the weapon both looked like they had an interesting story to tell. I know very little about the Guardians of the Galaxy team, so I was jumping in head first with no knowledge of their history.

From a newbies stand point, I don’t feel like I needed to know any past history. The story was very well written and I understood everything that was going on. Both the artist and the writer did an amazing job of making me feel for Peter (the main character) and really want to help him. I wanted to cry with him when he suffered a tragic loss.

I’m excited to see where this story takes me and hopefully learn more about his teammates and how they all got together to be the team they are. I’m slightly familiar with one of the team members, only because I think I saw him in Nova Vol. 5 Issue #1 (but I guess it could be another talking raccoon in cool clothes right?). Corrina adds: Can we ever have too many talking raccoons in cool clothes?

This is another series I wish came out bi-weekly or even weekly digital, but alas, it’s a once a month treat. One that I’m looking forward to and have already subscribed through Marvel’s subscription service.

After hearing so much praise since the title began, I finally took a chance on the first issue of Matt Fraction’s ongoing Hawkeye series.

Hawkeye follows the escapades of Clint Barton when he’s not on duty with the Avengers. When I described this to my husband, who asked what I was reading, he replied, “Hawkeye? Isn’t he just a dude? What does he do, sit around on the couch the entire time?”

In just a few issues, writer Matt Fraction has turned Clint into a character that readers really care about. After reading the first story, I immediately downloaded the rest of the available issues, and devoured them. There are very few superhero costumes and no flashiness in the series. David Aja’s art is brilliant; his use of purple is a subtle touch in each issue.

Hawkeye #8 picks up a thread from an earlier issue, bringing back a character to cause even more trouble in Clint’s life. This Valentine’s Day-themed story mixes in vintage romance comic covers by Annie Wu that are both fun to look at and play a small part in telling the story.

Hawkeye is a series that continues to impress and amuse me at the same time. If you haven’t picked up the first issue in the series yet, what are you waiting for? Go get it and read it now.

Corrina–Chicks Dig Comics

I’ve been meaning to read this book since attending the Chicks Dig Comics panel last summer at C2E2 and after I was done, I kicked myself for waiting so long. Because I have never felt so loved after finished a book. Chicks Dig Comics is filled with essays by women who love comics and not only want to state the obvious, that women love comics, they also want to share their passion with others.

Some of these stories had me near tears, like Jill Thompson‘s story of how her father gave up a Sunday afternoon to indulge his daughter’s passion and take her to a comic convention even though he wasn’t a comic reader. Maybe it was because Thompson’s story could be mine, especially since we started reading X-Men about the same time.

I saw my love of comics reflected in all the essays and when I was finished with the book, I felt much less alone in the world. Thanks to Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis, who edited the collection, and thanks to everyone who wrote essays, gave interviews, and shared their stories.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Nova Vol 5. Issue 1
My first exposure to Nova was in The Ultimate Spider-Man. I thought he was an arrogant Twilight Zone type and not someone I could see myself getting attached too. I much preferred the coolness of Iron Fist to Nova’s hotheadedness. After seeing him in action during AVX for the short period he was in it, I realized in the comic book world, he might be someone I could like.

I picked up Nova Vol. 5 Issue 1 in hopes that I would learn more about the character and what makes him so special. What I wasn’t expecting was for all of the issue to be about his life with his “loser” of a father, his mother and his sister.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed in the issue and if it wasn’t for the last two pages, I’d be skeptical about picking up issue 2. The last two pages, though, sealed the deal and I’ve caught myself looking back at them over and over again.

The first issue of this book, a revitalization of the Amethyst series, was good but not great and so I didn’t buy the next few issues. Now I wish I had. First, because #5 was excellent and, second, because the series is canceled now because of low sales, meaning now that I’m hooked on the story, it won’t continue. But when this comes out in a trade collection, I’m buying.

What attracted me to this issue? Revelations. We find out what happened to Amethyst’s father, why she was raised by her mother on Earth rather than Gemworld, and more is shown about the source of their powers. Plus some great action with Amethyst and her mom up against a crew of assassins and a nice introduction of a completely new character.

Marx will soon be taking over Birds of Prey, another title with low sales for DC. That book hasn’t been the same for me since Gail Simone left but I’m going to give Marx a chance based on the writing of this book.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week we look at The 10th Muse, Captain Marvel #9 and Coraline.

Dakster Sullivan — The 10th Muse Volume 1 (Image Comics run)
I stumbled on The 10th Muse (written by Marv Wolfman and art by Ken Lashley) last Wednesday when I was looking for a new read. The main character on the front was beautifully drawn, and I figured if the story looked half as good it would be worth it.

The story starts as we see Emma, Brent, and Dawn, friends who are pretty the Three Musketeers. They do everything together. Take the same classes. Live in the same apartment. Go towards the same goals. But during a post-college graduation trip to Greece, Emma gets hurt while climbing down a mountain. After that, everything changes… slowly.

Eight years later, Emma returns with no answers as to where she’s been. She has hardly any recollection about what happened after Greece, but one things for sure: she’s a different woman when the situation calls for it. We see her in various scenarios where she is either Emma or a super-heroine, known as the 10th Muse. I’m not 100% sure yet that she realizes she is making the transformation from one to the other. In some scenes it appears that she knows, while in others she doesn’t seem all that sure about what’s going on.

The main villain is Grayson Bishop, a man who gets what he wants the first time he asks for it from you, or else you risk getting cooked (literally). In some life or another, he shared a connection with Emma that she can’t remember. Regardless if she remembers or not, Bishop is determined that she will be his wife.

After the first few pages of Vol. 1 I was hooked. One things for sure though, if I ever get a chance to meet Marv Wolfman, he’s getting a high five from me for the Star Wars references (best comedy relief I’ve read in a long time).

Reading Vol. 1 didn’t explain much about who she is or how she manages to transform into the 10th Muse, so I’m excited to read on to Vol. 2, to see if it answers my questions.

I hereby submit that every comic featuring a hero punching a dinosaur increases the fun factor by at least 50 percent. But fighting dinosaurs is just part of a busy day for Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, which begins with Tony Stark waking her up and telling her he’s hacked her computer and re-arranged her schedule. Her day includes taking her cat to the vet (it does not go as planned but a civilian helps her out), meeting on a business venture (it gets a bit violent), and various stops along the way. At the end, it’s clear Carol stacked the day because she was afraid of bad news at the end, and she gets it but takes it the only way a superhero used to fighting dinosaurs and giant robots can.

If you’re not reading Captain Marvel, you’re missing out. #9 is a great jumping on point not just because it’s mostly a one-and-done issue but because it gives a terrific glimpse of who and what Carol is. Word is that the title is lagging in sales, which is likely due to her not being a “name” hero and perhaps being a female hero. I’d encourage everyone to buy it while you can, either from your local comic shop or Comixology.

Sophie Brown – Coraline

Coraline \ Image: P. Craig Russell

If you’re anything like me, you have a list longer than Santa’s of books you really want to read but just haven’t quite found the time for yet. Neil Gaiman’s Coraline had been on mine for several years, but somehow it had never managed to climb to the top, nor had I found time to watch the film. A few weeks ago I spotted the graphic novel version in my local library–graphic novels are great in that they can be read much faster than the “full” version of the same tale–so I grabbed it and polished off the entire book off in around an hour.

This straight adaptation uses chunks of Gaiman’s original text without much alteration, which some consider a let down as the text doesn’t flow as smoothly in the new format. I don’t read the format as often as many people do, so I failed to notice a problem, but fans of the comic/graphic novel genre have complained that the story needed re-working in order to better suit the medium.

Coraline is illustrated by P.Craig Russell who has worked on Sandman and also adapted Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung as a graphic novel for Dark Horse; his current work includes part one of the forthcoming graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The illustrations certainly maintain the otherworldly creepiness of Sandman along with the series’ distinctive visual style of grotesque horror, which increases as the story builds toward its climax.

As a newbie to the story, but not to Gaiman’s work, I really enjoyed this version of Coraline. I can certainly appreciate many of the criticisms it has received in reviews–for one Coraline herself appears far older than her nine years–but without having built up my own visions and expectations for the story it was hard to be disappointed. I still intend to read the complete novel of Coraline, but for now the graphic novel has done more than enough to satisfy my curiosity.

While writing up Comic Book Corner last week, I noticed I was only three posts away from 200 on GeekMom. Wow! It feels like only yesterday when I checked my spam folder to find an email from a GeekMom editor asking me if I wanted to join up with them. I was floored that 1.) if I hadn’t checked my spam folder that day I would have missed out on one heck of an opportunity and 2.) I had been selected out of what I can only assume, was a ton of letters asking to join up.

Since then, I’ve had some amazing experiences and opportunities to write about everything I’m passionate about, from comics to products to life experiences. I’ve also had the chance to interview celebrities and alike.

I’ve been thinking back about my favorite experiences so far, and just in case you missed any of them, I’d like to present to you with my favorite posts that I’ve had the pleasure of writing this past year and a half.

The first post I think of when I think back to the past year in a half is my first successful post, DC Comics New 52: A Newbies Point Of View. Before we moved to Wired, there were some really cool comments from encouraging to trolls on this one. The trolls made me realize that jerks occur in all walks of life, and geeks are not immune to having to deal with them. The friendlier comments encouraged my new love of comic books and some of them even backed me up against the trolls.

A few days after it was up on the site, one of my fellow GeekMoms realized that DC Comics was sharing it on their social networking sites. I had a total geekgasm (is that a word?). This write-up led to me looking DC Comics up at Megcon in 2012, where I talked with both Tony Bedard and Dan Didio about my experiences as being a newbie reading comic books.

Another post I’m rather proud of is more recent. Women in Technology: Get With the Picture was inspired by a post I saw on CNET about women in the technology field. I guess you can say I disagreed with the author to the point that I decided to point out what I thought the problem was in terms of the lack of women in STEM related fields.

I had no idea how well it would take off until I woke up to find that, after only being live for an hour, it had already been tweeted over 80 times. Later, I saw it take its place on Wired’s main page (a huge honor). Comments continued to come in months after the post went live and we had a mix of loud dissenters, as well as men and women who politely either agreed or disagreed with each other. If my memory serves me correctly, this post took me the longest, at over three months, to put together the way I wanted it.

Interviews are always fun, but for a while, I was a bit too intimidated to talk to anyone, so I conducted them all through email. This is probably one of my biggest regrets, because after speaking with Cort Lane this past January, I realized doing interviews over the phone wasn’t so bad. It was my interview with Hoon Lee and Kelly Hu that finally put me at ease when it came to talking to actors on the phone (Hoon Lee did his Splinter voice for me and I made it one of my phone alerts!).

After shooting the breeze with both of them, I realized that they were people just like me and I was able to show that in both of my interviews with them. Looking back, I would love to have a chance to redo some of the other interviews I’ve done including Yuri Lowenthal and Axel Alonso. I’ve also been on the lookout for other people I’d like to interview, and now I jump at the chance to talk to people who help bring my favorite characters to life.

I’m also a fan of using my GeekMom powers for good causes, and I did just that with Ian Keisacker. I first learned about Ian through the 501st forums after his father posted up asking members to help his son make his goal of $500 for a St. Baldricks fundraiser. I wasn’t sure how much a post would help Ian raise his goal, but I figured it was worth a shot. I reached out to his dad on the boards and after some research on Ian’s online diary, and after some emails back and forth with his dad, I had a post I was proud of.

This was the hardest post I’d written at this point and I had to stop more than once due to my keyboard getting wet from my tears. It was hard, but in the end, it was worth it. Thanks to the readers and the 501st Legion for sharing the post on social networking sites, Ian not only raised his goal, he destroyed it and raised over $1,100 for cancer research!

My most personal post is definitely my Anxiety and the Geek post. Before GeekMom, I didn’t have the strength to talk about my personal battles, but I felt this one needed to be told. Through writing it and posting it, I learned I’m not alone in this battle and I have people in my life fighting it as well that are there to help me when I need them.

Comic Book Corner is something I’ve very proud of. For those of you who are not familar with it, Comic Book Corner is a weekly comic book segment that I put together, along with my fellow GeekMoms. Complete with a list of the weeks new releases, this is my baby and I use it to help spread my love of comic books. The idea came to me after seeing the book club posts on the site and I wanted something for those of us who preferred their comic book heroes over the classics. It’s taken off, and every week we have contributions from different writers and who give insight into what they are reading. This is a great place to find new comic book suggestions–and I’ve taken more than a few of them myself. Comic Book Corner’s Comic Books for Kids post was a very popular, and I highly recommend anyone with children to check it out.

New Fantasyland was my first major press event and I couldn’t have been more excited to attend. Being a member of the press for this event made it and an adventure all its own. It was an amazing, memorable experience. The post itself took me some time because I wanted to make sure I included everything I could to give you all a great picture of what happened for the three days I was there.

Another post that comes to mind right now is my write up on Reading Rainbow because it’s one of the first “Twitter fires” I’d seen. Searching for this post on Twitter, I found dozens of people had tweeted the post and included the last line of my post in their tweet, “But you don’t have to take my word for it…” This was really cool for me because it meant my last line did exactly what I wanted it to do–it got people’s attention (and being retweeted by Levar Burton was really cool, too).

Star Wars Weekends is one of the biggest troops that we do in the Florida Garrison (501st Legion), and this past year, I took the time out to give some amazing costumers a shout out with my Star Wars Weekends 2012: Awesome Costume Firsts post. It takes a lot of work and dedication to build these costumes, so I felt it only fitting that I show them off to everyone I could. I also wanted to give a special thanks to everyone that helped me pull off my own weekends first costume and felt there was no better place than on GeekMom.

The Deedpool Corps is nothing to special except for the fact that it let me learn about Squirrelpool–the deadly squirrel assassin member of the Deadpool Corps. I first saw this little guy in an advertisement for a collectors series that included him as a bonus figure. I reached out to Sideshow Collectibles to find out more about the character and what made him so special. In the process I learned a little bit more about this furry little guy who was cute, but deadly. Why does this make the list? Because I did it for pure fun. The pageviews were next to nothing compared to the other posts on this list, but that doesn’t really matter to me as much as how much fun I had writing it.

Some of the posts I write might not always take off, but that doesn’t take away the fun I have in writing them or the pleasure I get from the positive or thought provoking comments you leave for me to read. As sad as it sounds, I feel like I’m waiting by the phone for a date after every post goes live. Why? Because I love hearing from our readers and I love that you take the time to write a comment or shoot me an email to tell me your thoughts.

I have some awesome things planned for this year, some of them coming up very soon after this post goes live, so please check back often. You never know what fun and amazing things myself and the other GeekMoms have in store for you. Cheers to my first 200 posts and all the things I’ve learned since starting. Here’s to another 200 more to come!

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week we look at Robyn Hood, Gunnerking Court, Will the Real Martian Please Stand up? and Star Wars!

Dakster Sullivan — Robyn Hood Issue #5 (Zenescope)

Last week the final issue of Robyn Hood by Patrick Shand (Zenescope) was released and I couldn’t be happier with the ending. I’ll admit it was a little more violent than I typically read, but that part aside, I’m thrilled that Robyn not only got her revenge, but the ending left it open for more stories with one of my favorite heroines.

There was a lot of action in this issue and my favorite part has to be when Robyn makes her way back home to Earth to seek out those who wronged her over a year ago. I was a little worried about how this revenge would affect her as a character, but it doesn’t appear to have made a negative impact on her. I almost feel bad for some of those she went after, but at the same time, I feel like they had it coming. After all, these guys were the definition of evil in my eyes. One of them attacked her in a very brutal way. Others stood by and watched it happen and didn’t help.

While I don’t agree with this kind of violence happening in real life, we all have to admit… men like Cal exist and they don’t always get what they deserve. After it was all said and done, I had a lot of questions regarding her character and the depth of the violence that occurred to her in the short five-part mini-series that I’ve come to love.

I’ve been anticipating the second issue of Brian Wood’s Star Wars ongoing series, hoping the story will continue to be as compelling as the first issue promised. Star Wars #2 lives up to the first issue and then some, with more insight into the lives of the members of the Rebellion along with the introduction of intriguing new characters in the Star Wars universe.

The second issue takes a look at what Han Solo and Chewbacca are up to in the weeks after the Battle of Yavin IV. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to write dialogue for a conversation with a Wookiee; Han has to basically repeat Chewie’s side of the discussion before adding his own two cents to keep the repartee going. Wood pulls this off admirably so that the reader understands what’s being said without it becoming repetitive.

Star Wars Issue #2. Image: Copyright Dark Horse Comics

We’re introduced to new characters in the form of the elite team under Leia’s lead, and I’m looking forward to seeing the squad in action. I’m not quite as hooked on the machinations of the Imperial Colonel Bircher, but mostly because I am eager to see what Han, Luke, and Leia are up to.

The art by Carlos D’Anda also continues to impress me. The X-Wing action is explosive and spectacular. With the additional bonus of another fantastic cover by Alex Ross, I’m sure Star Wars #2 will fly off the shelves as fast as the first issue.

A promotional copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Sophie Brown–Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

Image: Walker Paperback

Every other Saturday the library bus parks in my village with its minuscule collection of graphic novels (seriously, there’s usually less than three) so it was a pleasant surprise to spot something I actually fancied reading as I hunted down books for my toddler. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? is a graphic novel adaptation of The Twilight Zone episode of the same name, originally broadcast in 1961.

It is one of eight episodes selected to be published in this new format in an attempt to draw in a new young generation to Rod Serling’s classic tales; as a result is has been adapted with younger readers in mind. The story begins as state troopers investigate a supposed UFO, finding footprints in the snow that lead from the frozen lake where the ship is believed to have crashed up to a nearby diner. In the diner are the driver and passengers of a bus stranded due to a dangerous bridge up ahead, only there is one more person than there should be.

The story unfolds as the people in the diner become increasingly suspicious of one another in an attempt to root out who among them is the alien intruder. In this respect the story is reminiscent of the Doctor Who episode “Midnight“, although of course this tale was penned many decades earlier and so if anything, that episode was inspired by the Twilight Zone. The novel is adapted from the original screenplay by Mark Kneece, who has also worked on Batman: Legends of The Dark Knight, and illustrated by Rich Ellis whose current project is the Memorial series.

On Monday a new comic book will launch online that’s a little different to other comics on the market.

Written by Will Brooker (Batman Unmasked, Hunting the Dark Knight) and illustrated by Suze Shore and Sarah Zaidan; My So-Called Secret Identity has almost entirely female staff and is a not-for-profit enterprise that donates regularly to women’s charities. The story follows Cat, a young Irish-American cop’s daughter in her early twenties on her adventures in Gloria City, where if you’re not in costume then you don’t matter. Issue one will go live to the public on Feb 18th but for now you can check out the comic’s Facebook page which has previews or follow the team on Twitter for the latest news. Check back to GeekMom on Monday for a review of issue one and more information about the making of the series.

This was a great chapter, not for any huge plot events, but it actually made me laugh out loud. First we get to see Shadow find a place to be safe and learn. Jones helps out secretly in this with Annie. Then Annie visits a classroom of the fairies from the forest who have become human.

I can’t say I was a fan of the two characters Annie met in previous chapters because they were obnoxious, though kinda amusing. But in this chapter, we see the “culture” of this group, which is really funny. The page where Red responds to her friends…well, juvenile humor was never better drawn. And the character guide was so hilarious.

If you’ve never read any of this series, check out this chapter, be amused, and then maybe you’ll be intrigued enough to go back and catch up on the main plot-line.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week, Dakster looks at Aquaman #16 and Kelly gives her thoughts on today’s release of Young Romance: A New 52 Valentine’s Special.

Have you ever seen a movie and wanted to scream out “That’s him! That’s the bad guy!!” Well, that’s how I felt after reading Aquaman #16 last week.

This is the first crossover story arch I’ve read in the DC universe, so I was happy to see that it only bounces between Justice League and Aquaman (my wallet is happier too). Issue #15 left us seeing Cyborg call in reinforcements and needing some upgrades so he could go after the members of the Justice League that had been taken by the Atlanteans. I could tell it wasn’t an easy thing for him to do, but he wanted to save his friends, so he did despite what it would mean in the long run.

Aquaman is still having a hard time with everything going on, but hes finally seen that he chose the wrong side to fight on. What no one realizes yet is they have all been getting played by someone they’ve been protecting and trusting the entire time. The last page had me wanting to get on the Justice League comlink and tell Batman what I had just witnessed. Alas, much like yelling at your favorite team during a game, my yelling fell on deaf ears and the Justice League is still unaware of what has happened.

The crossover ends next month in Justice League #17 and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out. I’m also interested to see how the new members of the Justice League respond to being part of the team. I’m also curious about to see what happens between Batman and Hawkman. Batman didn’t seem to thrilled that Cyborg brought him on without talking with him first, not like he had a chance…Batman was kind of at the bottom of the ocean at the time.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week our writers look at Son of Merlin, Gunnerkrigg Court and the latest news regarding the X-Files comic book series. Come along with us as we venture into the awesome world that is comic books!

Dakster Sullivan — Son of Merlin

I fell into the first issue of Son of Merlin (written by Robert Place Napton and art by Zid) by accident and thankfully it was a pleasant fall into a new world of adventure and excitement. As the title suggests, this series focuses on Merlin’s son, Simone a handsome and smart young man who appears to work for a university. One catch…he doesn’t know who his father is or anything about him.

After Merlin is captured by a trap set by Morgana, a young woman by the name of Gwen is the only hope to help Simone become the man he is destined to be and stop Morgana from getting the Stone of Giramphiel.

I’m not 100% sure what the Stone of Giramphiel is or why it’s importance, but I’m willing to bet it’s something that could be dangerous in the hands of someone like Morgana.

It will be interesting to see what other aspects of the King Arthur legend is brought into play as we watch Gwen teach Simone about who he is and how he accepts his true destiny and birthright as the son of Merlin.

Chapter 34 was a wrap up of some romantic trails from previous story lines that I can’t say I was all that interested in. Although I did like Matt’s Japanese mysterious girl story.

Chapter 35, however, had Parley and Smitty in it. And I like them a lot, their powers are pretty cool, especially working together. Parley faced off without warning with the crazy ghost lady in the forest in a previous chapter.

That meeting made her realize her love for Smitty, and that she needs to work harder on fighting to ever stand a chance. She trained against Robot, and was only able to defeat him using her power to teleport.

An online course to study comic books? Sign me up! No, seriously, I already signed up. This spring the Canvas Network is offering a massive open online course called Gender Through Comic Books, taught by Ball State University’s Christina Blanch. Aimed at students college-age and up, the course will explore gender roles in comics from DC Comics, Marvel, and more. The goal of the course is to take a detailed look at “how comic books can be used to explore questions of gender identity, stereotypes, and roles,” with comics luminaries like Mark Waid, Scott Snyder, Gail Simone, and more providing their own input and insights.

I had the chance to ask the course instructor Christina Blanch about what students can expect in the course, and she revealed that the course will not only cover how men and women are portrayed in comics, but also discuss current comic book culture like the “fake geek girl” debate.

GeekMom: What inspired you to use comic books as a medium to explore gender roles?

Christina Blanch: I was taking a class on Women and Education for my doctorate. For the final project we had to write a paper and my professor, who is also my mentor and an amazing woman, encouraged me to step out of the lines and do something different. I had been researching Mort Weisinger and how he as editor changed the Superman Family books, focusing on Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, and I thought using comic books could be a way to approach teaching gender without the trepidation some students feel. So, I wrote a paper on how a class could be developed using comic books to teach gender.

One of the students in the class taught for Women and Gender Studies and thought that it would be a good class and suggested it to the department chair. Next thing I knew, they asked me to teach the class. And it was such a great class – the students were all engaged and simply amazing.

GM: Can you give any hints about topics you’ll be exploring in the course?

CB: The first thing we will cover is what exactly gender is. People often times think it is synonymous with sex or is feminism in disguise. This class is about men and women and how we can learn about gender through its social construction, as politics, as a diffuse concept, and as a lived experience. Constructions of gender vary from culture to culture and change throughout time. In the class we will look at how gender is constructed and how the stereotypes of certain gender traits are perpetrated by the producers of cultural material. Masculinity and femininity have traits associated with them that are not equal with a person’s sex.

We will look at how women and men are represented in comic books and see how masculine or feminine they are.

With the recent “fake geek girl” debates, I also plan to talk about the comic book culture and who consumes the material.

And finally, we will look at the producers of the comics themselves through live interviews with some of the leading comic book writers and editors today. Using Google hangouts, we will interview writers such as Mark Waid, Scott Snyder, Gail Simone, Terry Moore, and Brian K. Vaughan. We will also get the editorial perspective from Marvel editors Steve Wacker and Sana Amanat. And through the miracle of technology, we will be able to randomly choose several students to be able to directly ask the interviewees questions. It should be an enlightening experience for the students.

GM: Will your course explore characters from both Marvel and DC Comics, as well as some of the smaller publishers?

CB: Yes! We are exploring a lot of different types of comic books. I wish we had more time, it’s only six weeks, so we could get more into autobiographical comic books, but time is so limited. We will read some Marvel and DC, like Captain Marvel and Batman, but will also be looking at books from smaller publishers that put out amazing books like Strangers in Paradise and Saga.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week. This week we look at Ame-Comi Girls issue #20, Gunnerkrigg Court and Dark Horse Presents #20.

Dakster Sullivan — Ame-Comi Girls issue #20
I’ve been a huge fan of DC Comics Ame-Comi Girls (written by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Horacio Domingues, Rueben Gonzalez) since the first issue was released last year and so far, I haven’t had any complaints. The series comes out every Monday so regardless of the cliff hanger, you never have to wait long to find out what happens and the stories include some very strong female figures.

Issue #18 left us seeing the formation of an alternate dimension and it appears the story line is now following the new dimension, verses the original I learned to love.

Last week, we were introduced to The Flash and it was her back story that made me realize we are not in Kansas anymore. First, her background story says that she died after her car crashed into a bat of toxic goo. At the same time as her death, a flash of lighting strikes her body and she comes back to life…as a zombie and from here on out it just gets weirder. At the end of last week’s issue we were introduced to the Teen Hellions: Red Raven (vampire), Beast Girl, Tempest, Starfire and Cyborg. This week, we get to find out why they want Flash as part of their team and watch as they face off against Red Raven’s father, Trigon.

I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who is not into the recent fascination with Zombies, so I’m not sure how much I’m liking this story line. I’ll continue to read it though, because I’m open minded to what the authors are trying to do here. They haven’t let me down yet, so I trust they won’t me down now.

I have to admit, I haven’t been able to catch up completely with Gunnerkrigg Court as I had hoped this week. The latest chapter I read was 33: Give and Take. It focused more on Kat, rather than Annie. At this point Kat, a robotics genius, whom the robots worship and call “Angel” (she does not encourage this, but the robots seem to need someone to worship), she was given the blueprint for the old timey robots that seemed more lifelike than the current robotic helpers of the school.

Guess who’s making his apperance this season? \ Image: Courtesy of Marvel

The Ultimate Spider-Man is one of our family’s favorite shows and, thankfully, the new season is right around the corner. This season promises to be packed full of new adventures and villains, and special appearances by members of the Avengers.

Also beginning this Monday is the “Marvel Comics Close-Up” initiative. a new program to champion children’s literacy through Marvel comic book storytelling.

I was given an exclusive interview with Cort Lane, Supervising Producer of the Ultimate Spider-Man series, to get his insight into this season as well as get his thoughts on children’s literacy and the new program, which is backed by Disney XD, Marvel Entertainment and First Book.

GeekMom: To start, lets talk about Peter Parker. He was trained in the first season, but where does his character start emotionally at the beginning of the new season and does that change throughout?

Cort Lane: I think there is an emotional arc that is even greater and more challenging for him in the second season. He’s training to be a better hero in the first season. In the second season, he’s learned a lot, but now he is taking on new responsibilities. Nick Fury challenged him to take on a lot of responsibility and become a better hero in season one, and in season two Peter takes on new responsibility on his own.

He takes on responsibility for his team mates and he’s also taking on the responsibility to be their leader, it’s not an easy fit for him.

Being a leader doesn’t come naturally because he’s a loner. He’s also a teenager, so he makes mistakes. That’s a big emotional burden on him.

He’s also taking responsibility to help two friends that are very connected to Spider-Man. He wants to help Harry and save Norman Osborn from being the Green Goblin and he works towards that in the new season. His buddy and mentor from S.H.I.E.L.D, Curt Connors, becomes the Lizard in the first episode of the season and Peter has this intense need to do what he can to not only help stop the Lizard but cure him and get Curt Connors back to the friend that he needs.

We temper that with the usual Spidey quips and gags to make it light and humorous for kids, but he has some big challenges.

GM: After the destruction of the helicarrier in the last season, I’m guessing the rest of the team might feel a little displaced. Will we get to see them adjusting to living with Peter and some of the challenges they face living dual identities with Aunt May?

CL: Yea and we get to learn the origins of each of his team mates, in special stories that run throughout the season. This is still the Spider-Man show, so it’s still focused on him, but he is going to learn a lot about his team mates and through that we get to see how they got their powers, where their families are and it links to all aspects of the Marvel universe.

There are some surprising links between Nova and White Tiger to other Marvel Universe characters.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Hawkeye Issue #1 (Marvel Comics)
I picked up Hawkeye issue #1 (written by Matt Fraction and art by David Aja) this week after being inspired by one of our readers last week in the comments of our Top Comics of 2012 post. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but I figured I would give it a shot. It ended up being a bull’s-eye and now, I can’t get enough of the famous Avenger and his crazy ways (or the adorable dog in the first issue).

While I’m not 100% sure how to tell you about the story, I will say that it’s full of heart and action. We get to see a little bit of the kind of man Barton is and how much he cares for the people in his life. He seemed to have this “I don’t care” attitude when it came to doing what he wanted, even if it meant painful consequences for him in the end. After everything he goes through in this issue though, it has a happy and touching ending. I guess this means I have one more series to look forward to every month, because this issue has me sold.

Rebecca Angel – Gunnerkrigg Court
I recommended Gunnerkrigg Court back in August, after checking out the book compilations of this webcomic by Tom Siddell. The story is about Antimony “Annie” Carver, a girl whose mother has died and father seems can’t be bothered to visit her in a very strange boarding school called Gunnerkrigg Court (where her parents also attended.) I’m now catching up on the webcomic, where the third book left off, and wow, Siddell has got a winner.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Transformers: Prime (IDW Publishing)Transformers: Prime is one of my families favorite animated series. Thanks to iTunes not picking up the episodes as they air , I have to resort to other means of getting my fix. Recently, I discovered the Transformers: Prime comic book series from IDW and while I enjoy reading about Optimus Prime and the others, some of the series are just not my thing…until I found the animated series in comic book form.

I picked up volume 1 on Comixology this week and while the stories are a little short on the details that happened in the animated series, it still has all the action and heart. The really odd thing about this book is watching the Arcee and Cliffjumper transform. They look more like jumbled heaps of metal in transition than the smooth transitioning robots that they are.

I wish they would put the entire animated series in a comic book form, but since that won’t be happening anytime soon, I’m happy to at least have this one.

There was a recent poll on a comic book board I frequent that dubbed this book as one of the worst of the recent Marvel crossovers. I had a review copy of the event that I’d been meaning to read, so naturally after seeing the comments, I decided it was time.

And while it’s flawed, especially if you’re a big Marvel continuity stickler, it’s also a lot of fun to read.

And, best of all, Immonen’s art is wonderful. I closed the book thinking if a casual superhero fan watched The Avengers movie, they’d probably really enjoy this book, as many familiar characters show up: The Avengers, of course, a daughter of the Red Skull, much of the cast of Thor, not to mention a bunch of supporting characters. And, hey, cities get wrecked once more. I’ve been reading Marvel comics since the 1970s. This reminded me of the kind of story that used to run through all the summer annuals, seemed world-changing during the event, and then was promptly forgotten about by everyone.

The plot is basically that an escaped god of fear has sent his hammers/weapons out to certain powered people to make them avatars of destruction or fear. It’s not clear why but there’s a whole lot of destruction. The Avengers never seem quite afraid, however, even Thor, whose death seems to be connected to some prophecy regarding the returned god.

Lots of punching and smashing and stuff blowing up happens, and there are some good character moments, particularly with Steve Rogers and Thor and his people, and it ends on a somewhat hopeful note. There’s one big character death but that hardly counts, especially as that death was undone about two seconds later in comic book time. (The death did cause a lot of griping among fanboys at the time, however, and is no doubt partly why the story is viewed so negatively.)

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to the first installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner in 2013! This week, we look back at My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Mara #1 where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #2

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the few comic books I read that I can share with my seven-year old son. This is the first series he’s reading that has cliff hangers at the end and it’s taken him a little getting used to.

This issue follows our favorite ponies as they continue their adventure to rescue their friends. The younger ponies are driving Queen Chrysalis crazy and she is just as excited to get rid of them as the Mane Six is to rescue them. They find their way into a cave and, while making their way through, run into a troll who has a love for ponies. After winning over the troll, the ponies face another enemy that threatens to tear them apart and set them on their own individual journeys to find their young friends.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Robyn Hood Issue #4Robyn Hood (Pat Shand, Larry Watts and Adam Metcalfe) is my first 17+ rated comic book and the first series I’ve read by Zenescope. While I’m not thrilled with some of the content (rape, torture and other violence), the main character’s attitude and how she handles herself, keeps me coming back to see what she does next.

In issue #4, we get to see a glimpse of what has happened in Robyn’s hometown since her disappearance over a year ago. Cal, the man who raped her on a busy street and cut out her eye with a shard of glass, steps up at graduation as valedictorian and starts his speech off with asking everyone to remember those who aren’t with them anymore, like Robyn. We see that some of the audience is not only stunned he would bring her up, but also disgusted at his lack of empathy for the girl they all know he tortured. I see the same kind of sickness towards Cal, that I see in the people of Bree for King John.

After a moment between Cal and his father (that had me grinning with hope), the story picks up as Robyn begins to participating in a competition of sorts, set up by the king to weed her out and have her killed. Anyone who knows the story of Robin Hood knows how this part ends. She gets caught, thrown in a dungeon and we are left wondering how she will get out of this one.

The story continues in issue #5 (January), and is the last issue in the mini-series. I have really high hopes for how Robyn gets out of her current predicament and how she gets back at Cal for all the pain he’s caused her. I’ve waited four issues to see him get what he deserves, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan — Batman: Li’l Gotham

In continuing my holiday comic book theme, I was very excited to check out this months issue of Batman: Li’l Gotham, focuses on the December Holidays and in true winter fashion, Mr. Freeze is our main villain in this issue. The past couple of issues have been a lot of fun to read and this issue is full of both humor and heart. Both the writer (Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen) and the artist (Dustin Nguyen) do a great job at capturing the characters in this unique digital comic book series.

After the orphanage choir never makes it to the Gotham tree lighting ceremony, Batman and Nightwing head out to investigate why. What they find is a bus of frozen adults and a snow globe of happy children, in the “protection” of Mr. Freeze.

My favorite versions of Mr. Freeze are the ones where he has a heart, but uses it the wrong way. In this story, he does just that, claiming to be the children’s protector from the the cruelness of the Gotham City streets.

The issue has a very touching ending and includes a new version of “Jingle Bells”, sung by none other than the Joker. I highly recommend you check it out this holiday season. It’s a great story to read with the kids or alone on a break from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

When I read the news last Wednesday that the latest Masters of the Universe digital issue was a one-shot story telling the origins of She-Ra, I couldn’t wait to get it downloaded. Although I have fond memories of watching She-Ra: Princess of Power as a girl, I couldn’t tell you much about it now, so I was looking forward to the refresher.

Since I starting writing for GeekMom I’ve received some really cool things in the mail, but none of have been as cool as my hardcover copy of Avengers vs. X-Men. This edition includes the entire 12 issue mini-series along with the AVX: VS mini-series, the Infinite Comics (first time in print) and Point One and puts them in once place to enjoy for hours of reading. Also included in this edition is a digital copy and, for me, that makes the retail price (around $75) worth it.

I’m still a newbie to the comic book world and Avengers vs. X-Men is my first jump into Marvel comic book storytelling.

The X-Men have been some of my favorite characters since I was a child. I loved watching X-Men (The Animated) series and seeing the relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine. The only character on the Avengers that I was familiar with was Captain America and I mostly liked him because of what he stood for. As for the rest of the Avengers team, I had no clue who they were or what they were about, but I had this feeling from the beginning that I wanted them to win. I was afraid that Wolverine would side with the X-Men and I was happy to see that my favorite Marvel character would be on the team I wanted to root for.